What began with the hacking of Sony Corp.’s Playstation Network back in April has now snowballed into a full-on hackers open season, as a whole raft of websites have fallen to the group calling themselves LulzSec. The collective have now turned their hive-mind on the government, with high-profile hacks of both the Senate and CIA sites in less than 24 hours.
Although by their very nature a hard bunch to pin down, LulzSec appear to be a more proactive and organised splinter group of Internet rascals Anonymous. The group have been preying on both corporate and government websites for the last few weeks, including popular games developers Bethesda and Codemasters – as well as releasing a cache of usernames and passwords for a popular porn site.
Last week Spanish police announced they had arrested three individuals in relation to the Playstation Network hack, individuals which they identified as the “local leadership” of the group who carried out the attack. Anonymous were quick to respond, and less than 24 hours later the Spanish police website was knocked out. Just three days later Turkish police announced they had arrested 32 individuals with links to the group.
Since then Anonymous and LulzSec seem to have been picking tougher adversaries than electronics manufacturers. The group opened up a hack request line, which callers can use to suggest targets for their ire, and even gave yesterday’s activities a name – “Titanic Takeover Tuesday.”
The shift from attacking private corporations to government websites is certainly a risky move, however if Sony’s repeated failings are any indication, it seems as if not much can stand in the LulzSec’s way at the moment.
